In the United States of America, manufacturers of child-resistant closures seek to provide closures that, under test protocols, meet or exceed the Consumer Products Safety Commission child-resistant safety standards.
A variety of closure designs are in use or have been proposed which provide some degree of child resistance. Typically, the designs incorporate elements or parts of the closure which must be manipulated in some way by the user with a sufficient amount of force in order to open the closure. Small children are typically unable to determine what manipulations are required to open the closure, and in any event, are typically not strong enough to effect the necessary manipulations with sufficient force. However, while such containers may be resistant to opening by a small child, such containers are also particularly difficult to open by some adult users, such as elderly adults, arthritic adults, and adults with other physical disabilities or limitations.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved, one-piece closure having a hinged lid which can be more easily opened by an adult user.
It would also be advantageous if such an improved closure could also be readily incorporated in a closure of the child-resistant type.
Further, it would be beneficial if such an improved closure could maintain a secure and latched closed condition, but yet could be opened by an adult without the need of a tool or other special device.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved closure could be provided in the form that would not require excessively complicated manufacturing operations and that would permit the use of conventional, high-speed, automatic capping machines for applying such closures to containers.
The present invention can be embodied in designs that provide one or more of the above-discussed benefits and features.